Leila Patel

Leila Patel is the Director of the Centre for Social Development in Africa and Professor of Social Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg. She was previously the Director General of Social Welfare in South Africa and Deputy Vice Chancellor and Vice-Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She played a leading role in the development of South Africa’s welfare policy after apartheid. Her research interests are social welfare, social security, social development and civic engagement. She is editor of the Social Worker Researcher Practitioner and her recent book is titled Social Welfare and Social Development in South Africa (Oxford University Press, 2005).
For the UNRISD project on The Political and Social Economy of Care she authors a paper on the gendered character of social care in the South African non-profit sector.